Nearly 8 million households completely unprepared for DTV switch as of December

January 13, 2009

As Congress decides on whether to act on President-elect Barak Obama’s request to delay the DTV transition, Nielsen rereleased statistics from December showing where the nation’s over-the-air viewers stand with their preparations.

According to Nielsen, the data show about 7.8 million households, or 6.8 percent of all TV households across the United States, were completely unprepared. In other words, none of these households had a TV set that would be able to receive a signal post Feb. 17, if the transition occurs as planned.

Nielsen’s tally also shows that Hispanic households in the United States would be hit significantly harder than non-Hispanic households. In December, 11.5 percent of Hispanic households were completely unprepared, compared to 6.2 percent of non-Hispanic households.

The figures also revealed that more households headed by younger people were unprepared than those headed by someone over 35 years of age. When it comes to least prepared cities, Albuquerque, NM, topped the list, followed by Tulsa, OK, Houston, Dallas-Fort Worth and Salt Lake City, UT.